Out With a Bang
by TheDamSnackbar
Summary: Submit Your Own Character! The Dumping Ground is at risk of closing, and Tracy, Mike and Gina take the kids on a camping trip to make their last Elmtree memories before they're split up. Please submit a character. -closed-
1. Chapter 1

**Hello! Welcome to my SYOC - a story where you submit the characters! The plot line to this story currently is: The Dumping Ground faces a new threat of being shut down. This time, the likelihood of saving Elmtree is scarily low, but who will be the first to find out? Mike, Gina and Tracy take the kids on a camping trip for an unknown amount of time, to keep them distracted and happy while the threat of being split up looms over them. Meanwhile, while the children are away from their home, Elmtree House is being inspected and judged.**

**Now, this is where you come in. There'll be a few of the current characters, depending on how many of you submit characters. I want this to be built around YOUR characters, though. To clear up a few things, here's some rules:**

**- No Mary Sues/Gary Stues. Basically, your character can't be the most beautiful, or most intelligent, or most friendly, and ESPECIALLY not all of them. I'm not saying they can't be extremely intelligent, but what would I do if two characters were submitted with the 'most intelligence'?**

** - Not everyone can have a crush on Liam/go out with Liam/be an ex of Liam. He's not a player, guys D:**

**- Be creative :3 I don't want to sound all strict and boring, I just had to clear a few things up. Your character can be any age, gender, have any disabilities, look however you want and be however you want. They CAN be beautiful and they CAN be smart, but be creative!**

**- I'll stop now. Promise.**

**- (First Beaker fic, btw D: )**

**Name:**

**Age:**

**Gender:**

**Appearance:**

**Personality:**

**Type of people they're friends with:**

**History:**

**Reaction to camping:**

**If I do include the TBR characters, who would your OC be friends with?**

**Family:**

**Other: (Things they can't live without, quirks, etc.)**

**I'll post the people sharing tents when I get enough characters, and I won't necessarily group them with their friends, but with people they don't like. Sometimes, not all the time. Just to mix things up. Submit as many charas as you like (Example: if your character has family or significant friends, do a form for them too.)**

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><p>Gina slumped down into her chair in the office, head in her hands as she lay the letter on her desk with a sigh. What would they do? Elmtree had been at risk a few times in the past, but not like this. They had never been so determined and set upon closing down the Dumping Ground. Even now, the sound of giggling filled her ears and she thought of the children outside her room, the ones whose last hope was this home. They were so innocent and clueless that the place they called home, the people they called family could be dragged away from them at any moment.<p>

Something had to be done. If the Dumping Ground didn't have much time left, then they'd make advantage of whatever they did have left. These last weeks that they had would be something to hold onto, even if it was the last they had. At that moment, as Gina pondered this thought, Tracy and Mike came stumbling into the room. Mike closed the door tight shut and they both took a seat.

"We've heard the news," Tracy informed her after a moment, a sad expression on her face. "It's all right, though, it's not the first time this place has been down for closing. We'll just-"

"No, Tracy," Gina shook her head. "It's different this time. They're determined to shut us down. There's not much we can do."

"But we have to do something! We can't just let them do this," Tracy insisted, leaning back in her chair and thinking hard. "There's got to be something."

"Gina's right," Mike finally spoke. "We can't do much about this. If they don't shut us down, they'll cut our numbers. We'll be sending kids away."

"I have been thinking though," Tracy sat up straight when Gina said this. "We could do something. Something for the kids, in case anything does happen. I'm not sure what exactly..."

The three of them mused over the possibilities; particularly Tracy, who was back to leaning against her chair with her eyebrows furrowed. Much silence ensued, until Tracy sat high and proud in her seat with her eyes wide open and a grin across her face. "Camping. We'll take the kids camping. I've heard loads of people say that it's a good bonding experience, and a perfect way for the kids to make their final memories with the Dumping Ground."

Nobody spoke.


	2. Chapter 2

**Just a short chapter to introduce the story, I suppose. All of your characters have been accepted so far. ****I'm**** only keeping this open for another couple of days, so submit a few more characters, guys! Remember, they can be any age. They don't all have to be 11-15. Mix it up a little, like a seven year old for example. Submit via either PM or review.**

**In this story, Lily is still at the Dumping Ground.**

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><p>If you were to suddenly wake up after a long, long sleep in England, you wouldn't believe it was October. The air was cold enough to be December, with blankets of frost and ice covering the pavements and tree trunks. All of the children at Elmtree House awoke to a biting cool air on that Saturday morning. Despite it being the weekend, nobody would be leaving the house today unless it was Tracy, Mike or Gina, then only to get food.<p>

The children rubbed at their weery eyes and began to slowly cluster towards the kitchen, each one wrapped up in a blanket and a dressing gown. Lily shivered.

"Why's it so cold in here? What's up with the heating?" she complained, taking a seat beside Tee and pouring herself a cup of hot chocolate.

"Yeah, it's freezing in here," Tee nodded in agreement.

"No idea," Tracy replied, carrying a jug of orange juice to the table. "It was fine all last night, then it just stopped. Mike's gone to get some candles and heaters while we wait for a heating engineer to turn up."

A girl with black ringlets entered the room, with Harry and Geoff hanging off her neck. Sophie set Harry down in a seat and poured him some hot chocolate, with a little cup of it for Geoff, too.

"Geoff doesn't like the cold," Harry announced, frowning as he looked at his cup.

By now, everyone was seated at the table. Harry sipped at his hot chocolate, quietly drinking Geoff's when he had finished his own. Three teenage girls sat around one end of the table, leaving the other kids to scatter around the other chairs. They chatted about the freezing weather and nibbled at their toast, but only one girl was distracted.

Her eyes were focused on Tracy, surveying her every move. As creepy as it looked, the girl was merely being observant. Something was wrong with the young careworker, the determined yet upset look in her eyes. There was something that the careworkers were keeping from them, and Lorna wanted to know what it was.


	3. Chapter 3

**This SYOC is now closed! A lot of characters were submitted and, with some of the TBR characters being included, I won't be able to accept them all. Lots of fifteen year old girls were submitted, and they'll be the ones more likely to be declined. If you'd like to change the age/gender of your character then please do so, as it'll make your chances of being chosen much more likely. They can't all be fifteen years old or girls!**

**Thank you :)**


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